An Interview With Martita Mestey
How good it feels to run your own restaurant.
You often hear stories about how hard the restaurant industry is, or the toll it can take. There are definitely challenges, but making the decisions to run my own restaurant has by far been the best decision for me. It gives me the space to be creative, and share my passion for food with the community. I want more stories about how fulfilling it is to run your own restaurant.
As a part of our series about “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became a Restaurateur”, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Javier Villatoro.
Javier Villatoro is a diligent and inspired chef with robust experience developing culinary programs, scaling operations, and managing high volume retail and foodservice outlets. As chef and co-owner of Coray Kitchen in Delmar, NY, he’s known for his generous spirit, creative flavors, and honest, down-to-earth approach to cooking.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to ‘get to know’ you a bit. Do you have a specific type of food that you focus on? What was it that first drew you to cooking that type of food? Can you share a story about that with us?
I don’t have a specific type of food or cuisine that I prefer to cook. I love to cook with the seasons and with what inspires me from the local farmers. I love to cook food that has a story or a meaning, and helps connect people to a special memory or moment in their life. We describe Coray Kitchen as “seasonally-driven, global flavors” that bring together my own personal connection and flavors that have impacted me.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you became a restaurateur? What was the lesson or take away you took out of that story?
Mid service during our soft open, with a packed dining room, we realized that we didn’t have printer paper for the kitchen printer. That was fun. We thought of everything, but somehow forgot to think about making sure the old printer paper fit our new printers. It put us behind on ticket times, but also helped us see the agility of the team and the willingness of our guests to wait a few extra minutes for good food.
Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? How did you overcome this obstacle?
I started as a dishwasher and moved up in roles within the kitchen. It took a lot of hard work and dedicated hours to demonstrate my ability and earn my recognition in one of the biggest food cities in the world.
Starting my own restaurant required that I believe in myself and have the courage and skills to create something that never existed. I had to build credit with the community and also had to prove my vision and credibility to many different providers. Many institutions ranging from food vendors to funding options don’t trust new restaurant owners so it takes time to establish that relationship.
In your experience, what is the key to creating a dish that customers are crazy about?
Cook from your heart. There is a lot of good food, but not a lot of great food with soul. The key for me is to put love and care into everything I make.
Personally, what is the ‘perfect meal for you’?
The perfect meal for me is one that when you finish creates a memory that you can share with others.
Where does your inspiration for creating come from? Is there something that you turn to for a daily creativity boost?
My inspiration comes from memories, experiences, and places that l have been over the years. I’m inspired by my garden, and how a good meal makes people feel.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? What impact do you think this will have?
We were just approved to add an outdoor patio to the restaurant, which will be surrounded by a chef’s garden and edible landscaping. This will nearly double our capacity and allow us to build out more community food programming to connect our guests to their food.
We change our means four times a year, and are starting to think ahead to our late summer menu, where I’ll feature a lot of ingredients from my own garden.
What advice would you give to other restaurateurs to thrive and avoid burnout?
My advice would be to
Work hard, get focused, believe in yourself, and be flexible if an idea doesn’t work — move on, try something different.
Thank you for all that. Now we are ready for the main question of the interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started as a Restaurateur” and why?
- How to balance work life and family life.
My wife and I run the restaurant together, and have two young children. We try to strike a balance where the kids feel connected and involved in the restaurant, but also know there’s a lot of life outside the restaurant. They love helping me in the garden and knowing that the food is going to go on the menu, and are always coming up with different ideas for specials or events we may want to offer in the future. Our 7-year-old is also the artist at the restaurant and is proud to showcase her art in the community.
2. How good it feels to run your own restaurant.
You often hear stories about how hard the restaurant industry is, or the toll it can take. There are definitely challenges, but making the decisions to run my own restaurant has by far been the best decision for me. It gives me the space to be creative, and share my passion for food with the community. I want more stories about how fulfilling it is to run your own restaurant.
3. The impact a restaurant can have in the community in a short time.
Within the first month of opening, my wife and I were completely blown away by how many people thanked us for opening. It has always been part of our vision to create a restaurant with a lasting impact and legacy in the community, but we were truly surprised to see this come to life within the first few months. People come to us to celebrate, reconnect with friends and family, create memories and simply enjoy a special moment together. We don’t take that for granted and want to cultivate a space where the community can grow.
4. How important it is to have a great general contractor.
We are so lucky to have had a relationship with a general contractor that has established strong trust within the community and among other service providers. There are so many times that the lights stop working, AC doesn’t turn on, or any other issue pops up and we have someone that responds and quickly addresses issues is invaluable.
5. How to get motivated when things get hard.
No matter how successful your restaurant, there will be times when things get hard. I’ve had to learn several techniques for how to stay motivated and maintain inspiration and vision even when things feel tough. I’ve found that building a work culture and staff community that truly has your back and supports the restaurant in the good and in the bad is key. We have the best staff and always know we can count on them to keep us moving forward.
What’s the one dish that people have to try if they visit your establishment?
Fresh made linguine pasta with little neck clams in a white wine, garlic butter sauce.
Thank you so much for these insights. This was very inspirational!
Javier Villatoro Of Coray Kitchen: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became a Restaurateur was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.